The Haunted Mask Returns
by XenomorphSlave
Summary: Ten years after her nightmarish experience, Carly Beth continues to dream about her Haunted Mask. But what if these dreams become reality? Carly Beth may not have beaten her tormentor yet, and the price to do so could be her identity...
1. Chapter 1: The Return

Chapter 1

_October 30, 2004_

It had been nearly ten years since Carly Beth had last experienced the horror of nearly losing herself to the Unloved Haunted Mask—that face that she would rather have forgotten. Though it had made her brave after years of torment by her classmates, that horrific visage still came to her in thoughts and nightmares. She thought she would be rid of it forever once she had conquered its cruel influence with the Symbol of Love her mother had crafted for her. But even now, as a grown woman, she was plagued by dreams of its return and that constant feeling of dread whenever Halloween came around that it would find her again and fulfill its deadly purpose of taking over the body of a living host and bend body, will, and mind to its own devious devices.

Carly Beth, now a student at the University of North Texas (far away from the quiet Midwestern town where she experienced the nightmare firsthand), was in her dorm room, shifting to and fro as another nightmare ruined her sleep just as it had on an almost daily basis since that fateful evening ten years ago. She could see the Mask coming towards her. Its' evil, glowing, orange eyes peering from within those deep set sockets were fixed on her, like malicious fireflies illuminating its sickly green face in the abyss that the dream was set in. The mouth, almost overfilled with sharp animal teeth, extended back in an expression that Carly Beth could interpret as something between a smile and scowl. It was floating closer to her, and Carly Beth couldn't force herself to run. It was like her feet had been hacked off and she was stuck in a dried block of concrete. She put her hands up defensively, trying to stop its progress as she pleads with the face that was mere inches beyond the outstretched fingers.

"Please… Please don't!"

_We are one, Carly Beth_, the mask whispered in its raspy voice that was more akin to a snake than a semi-human face. _We are destined to be. You love me, and I -must- have you. Come with me, and we will be together… FOREVER!_ As it passed through her hands, they turned ugly and green, with sharp talons, long and dangerous like a bear claw, tipping each of her fingers. Carly Beth screamed in horror at this transformation as the last thing she saw was the mask bearing down on her. The walls of the skin closed in against her own as she uttered a final, insane "Noooo!" to the mask that was soon to own her.

That is when Carly Beth woke up, sitting with a jolt on her dorm bed. The pink nightie she wore was soaked through with sweat, and she frantically checked her hands to discover with a relief that they were the same: delicate, soft, and nimble—the hands of the artist, not the killer. To affirm her observation, they went to her face… to find sharp animal teeth lining her mouth. She screamed once again…

Only to wake up for real this time. Rather than sitting up, Carly Beth curled around herself, pulling knees to modest-sized chest, as she whimpered and shook in the embrace of the night. That dream was far worse than the others, and she had been having these dreams nightly for three weeks, since October rolled around on the Cthulhu wall calendar she kept thumb-tacked on her corkboard next to this week's major assignments.

_Hardly the last thing I need with midterms coming up_, she thinks bitterly. Not only is she scared by these dreams, she is angry that even after ten years, she is still terrified by a childish nightmare she isn't even sure actually happened anymore. Her gentle sobs rouse Sabrina, who had come to UNT with her and managed to work on getting them roomed together for their first semester. Still exceptionally elegant-looking, Sabrina was going out with this guy called Ian, who was a Creative Writing major in the English Department. Carly Beth got the two of them hooked up, for she met the guy in her first Creative Writing class she took as an elective, and knew that his obsession with Cthulhu and H.P. Lovecraft would be an instant shoe-in for a long-term relationship. They had been going steady for several months now, and Sabrina seemed to like him a lot. But concern for her childhood friend supersedes her euphoria as Sabrina goes over to Carly Beth's bed and gently shakes her.

"Carly Beth, what's wrong?"

The tormented young woman, wiping a tear from her eye, looks up and towards Sabrina with a gentle smile, taking comfort in her face. "Just another nightmare, Sabrina."

"Ugh," Sabrina utters as she closes her eyes exasperatedly. "Carly Beth, you gotta get this checked out. Midterms are next week, and you haven't been able to study or stay awake in class or anything since you started having these nightmares. Look, I know the department head for Psychology. I have a class with her. I can arrange…"

"No," Carly Beth said quickly, stubbornly. "I don't need a shrink."

"Then take sleeping pills, or something. You have to do something about this."

"I'll be fine, Sabrina. I don't need you mothering me all the time. I'll work around this… somehow…"

"I sure hope so," Sabrina says, unconvinced. "Because if you continue having these nightmares, it's gonna be both our asses by the time exams come around."

"I know, Sabrina. I know," Carly Beth responds with a sigh, her anger dissipating as she realizes that Sabrina is not trying to damage her pride. She only wants to help, and Carly Beth trusts in her. "Maybe seeing somebody is not a bad idea…"

"Good. I'm glad you see reason finally. I'll talk to her tomorrow and see when she can see you. You try to get some sleep now," Sabrina says as she bends over and kisses Carly Beth gently on her forehead.

"Thanks, Sabrina," Carly Beth responds as a smile crosses her face. Then taking her friends advice, she turns over on her side and closes her eyes, ready for another bout with the dream of her own personal demon.

_Meanwhile, back home…_

The mist rolled around the base of the tombstones, a white blanket of moisture and gloom that only added on to the eeriness of the ancient cemetery. And yet there was one small patch of grass yellowed by the oncoming winter that the mist did not dare touch. In the center of this unoccupied patch, the earth churned as though it was a zit ready to pop, or a volcano just making itself known on the bottom of the Pacific. Except this eruption did not produce rock or ash, but a horror far worse to mankind.

The Mask pushes itself through several feet of dirt, having only this handful of days surrounding Halloween, or Samhein as he knows it, to act without a host. But now, after ten years of dutiful work and silent meditation and planning, he is free, and he knows precisely how to enact his vengeance against the one who had once accepted him, but then turned him away as the monster he is: Carly Beth. Rising into the air, the Mask took in his surroundings, and with an evil chuckle, floated into the night towards the home where Carly Beth had first worn him, loved him, and been taken over by him…


	2. Chapter 2: Questions and Answers

Author's Note: Many apologies for the long wait. Big thanks to everybody who gave a review of the first chapter, and I'm very pleased to see that the reaction has been beyond superb! This is my first fanfic, and I do intend on writing more (on a sporadic basis, professional creative work barring) involving my various favorite characters from childhood and more recent readings. Who knows, maybe Cthulhu Himself will pop up one of these days! Anyways, thanks a million, and without further ado, here is Chapter Two. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

_October 30, 2004_

3:50 at last rolled around the clock, and with a sigh of relief Carly Beth got up from her desk and hurried to the nearby door, heaving her shoulder bag as she does. The door pushed open with ease, and she looked around the open courtyard of the General Academics building where her last class of the day, College Algebra I, was located. Ever paranoid, brown eyes darted about the crowd for anything or anybody that seemed unusual—in other words, sickly green and animalistic. On this last Friday before Halloween, the halls were packed with frat boys and geeks alike dressed in cheap college costumes that would have made some of the professional costume makers, or even the furries, laugh. Carly Beth could not recall how many times she had seen the Slender Man today, having lost count at around fifty. She, of course, was not dressed all fancy. A simple pair of jeans, some matching Converse, and a light blue My Little Pony T-shirt covering her frame. She always did like the shirt. It made her feel safe and happy, something she desperately needed after the rough night.

Carly Beth escaped from the confines of the GAC building and looked at her phone, where a text message from Sabrina, who was still stuck in her Creative Writing class at this time, was set on the screen, black lettering against the bright screen that adjusted to the Texas sun shining down on her.

_LANG 414. 4 p.m. She's expecting you. GL!_

With the room number fresh in her head, Carly Beth jogged from the entrance of GAC toward the post-modern 60s ugliness of the Language building. Squat and dark, it was a perfect watchtower to the seedy cheapness of the bars on Fry Street just across the road. Carly Beth's stomach growled for a moment, and her eyes darted to Chipotle just across from the corner of the Language building, but suppressed the urge to skip out on the impromptu appointment with Sabrina's psychology professor. So, casting her fears aside, the young woman trotted up the shallow steps of rose quartz and went inside.

By this point, the halls were already dark and quiet, indicating that four o'clock was here and she was starting to run late. So Carly Beth ran up the steps as quickly as she could to the top floor, where all the foreign language and English professors keep their offices. It didn't much concern her why a psych professor kept her office among a bunch of bookies who are happier in their libraries than in their classrooms, but it was a curiosity nonetheless as she walked quickly down the circular hall toward the room number indicated. When she found it, Carly Beth lifted her knuckles and beat on the brown door with a soft _tap tap tap. _

The threshold was opened to reveal a scraggly older woman with dark eyes and a crown of grey hair which stood around her head like an angel rendered on the cathedral wall. "You're five minutes late," the professor said with a voice wracked with age and emphysema. Carly Beth could all but gag at the cloying smell of secondhand smoke that filled the small office.

"Yeah. Forgive me, professor," Carly Beth responded as her eyes watered with the stinging sensation of old tobacco trapped in a small space. She crossed the threshold with a hand rubbing her irritated eyes while she got used to the stench. "I was released late from class and…"

"Don't bother me with your lies, Carly Beth," said the irritated psychology professor as she closed the door behind her impromptu patient. "I know you don't particularly want to be here, and frankly I'd rather not be dealing with your case."

"Then why see me, Dr.," asked Carly Beth as she settled down on a stool across from the professor's chair.

"Sabrina had made a strong argument in favor of you," responded the older woman as she, as well, took her seat. "I agreed to hear you for only two reasons: she's my best student, and your case sounds fascinating." Smoker-yellow teeth exposed, sending chills down Carly Beth's spine for a moment before she looked down and away from the sight.

"Yeah, I guess it is. Sorta…"

"So tell me about this dream of yours."

_An hour later…_

The psychologist looked at Carly Beth over entwined fingers, regarding her with scientific chill covering her disbelief. Carly Beth rubbed some tears flowing like blood from her face as the salty sting started to bother her. This was the first time she had ever recounted her terrifying story in full, so fearful was she not just of the event, but of the listener's reaction. There was nothing she feared more (aside from the Mask's return) than to be carted away to the looney bin on account of the disbelieving nature of the greater bulk of humanity.

"It's… It's haunted me ever since. I know I defeated it; I know that… monster… can't return anymore. So much distance is in between me and where I buried it. But these dreams are only becoming worse, and I can't help but wonder if this is a premonition of some sort. I mean, what if I'm wrong? What if it does return?"

The doctor listened, clearly not believing the story but taking it in patiently and with an appreciation for Carly Beth's openness. After a moment's thought, she spoke. "I can understand why you would be so afraid, Carly Beth. Whether the mask became one with you or not, I'm sure that it would be a traumatizing experience. Now, I personally do not subscribe to such fanciful notions as premonitions or far-seeing or something like that. I'm a scientist, not a common street vendor psychic. As such, I think these dreams you're having are simply the result of a lifelong attempt to forget what happened to you and move on with your life." Another cigarette was lighted as the doctor continued her counsel.

"But the experience was so impressionable on your, at the time, young mind, that your psyche is now attempting to drive it out of its system in an attempt to reverse potentially irreparable damage. Dreams are a natural part of the human mind, and they are necessary in outing certain emotions that can prove a hindrance in everyday life. Tell me, when you were young, were you easily scared?"

"Horribly so. Everybody made fun of me because of it."

"And how did you feel after the fact?"

"Empowered, like I could do anything."

A finger was pointed at Carly Beth, as if the conclusion had been reached. "There is your problem, then. You have learned to live without fear; and yet it is fear that is one of the most essential emotions in the human mind. Rather than face the fear, embodied by this mask, you have buried it and lived without it. While fear can be buried for a while, after some time, the damage it makes on your mind can literally drive a person mad until the day they die. You can't let your experience that Halloween rule you. You have to face it and accept it for what it is—a simple childhood experience that may seem supernatural or what have you, but in truth was simply an unfortunate accident. Only then can you assume control over your life once again."

Carly Beth took in the words, desperate for some answer to her problems. But the noted lack of the supernatural in the doctor's diagnosis only sowed doubt in her, and she took this opportunity to address it. "But I know what happened, Doctor. I know what I felt, and what I experienced…"

"That was ten years ago, Carly Beth. For all I know, this could simply be your interpretation of what happened, but what really occurred is far from what you remember."

"Prove it, then."

The psychologist sighed and rubbed her nose exasperatedly before continuing with the detailed analysis. "You said were scared as a child."

"Yes."

"And what did you say this mask was made of?"

"Real skin."

"That's impossible, Carly Beth. Dead skin cannot possibly react in the way you described it."

"But that's what it was made of," said the girl with irritation growing on her voice.

"Okay," the doctor ceded, fending off the attack for now. "This mask, whether it was made of skin or not, is simply a symbol for your childhood fears. You only remember it as you want to remember it, but always keep in mind: Fear can take the form of anything that traumatized us as a kid. A boogeyman, if you will, always lurking in the back of our minds until it so chooses to reveal itself. You need to be strong, Carly Beth, and not the kind of strong that you have been—cowardly rather than courageous. Be brave, Carly Beth, and always remember that the shadows you think are out to get you are only shadows."

Carly Beth looked out the window as the professor finished her explanation and took a deep breath to suppress her irritation. _What she says sounds right, _thought the student. _Even if she doesn't believe me, I can't live like this anymore. Time to grow up, Carly Beth. He can never come back._

Another deep breath, and Carly Beth stood. "Alright. Well, thank you, Doctor. I really appreciate it." A single hand was extended, which the professor accepted graciously.

"Please, call me Alice. If you ever need anything else, please, don't hesitate to drop by and leave a note if I'm not around."

"I will. Thank you, Alice!" With that, Carly Beth left the cramped office with a smile on her face and a renewed sense of herself such as she hadn't felt in a long time.

"Just face the fear," she repeated to herself as the stairwell was entered and descended. Chipotle was now in order!

_Meanwhile, in Whisper Hollow, Indiana…_

The Mask had been wandering the small town all day, keeping to the bushes so he couldn't be seen. Daylight was always dangerous to him, for if anybody saw him floating about without a body, his plan could be ruined forever. He had a specific target for his bodily camouflage, and nothing, nobody, was going to stop him.

It was evening time when he approached the façade of the unchanged house he still recognized after all these years. The hanging ferns of the wraparound porch, the sweet burning smell of a kiln working somewhere in the backyard, and the typical trappings of the human celebration of Samhain crossed over vicious eyes and flared nostrils. He kept among the boughs of a tree across the road as he spied on the brightly lit interior of the single story house, and soon his target made herself known.

The aging wench appeared in the window of the house looking in on the kitchen. Her straight brown hair was caught up in a bun as she carried some cookies to the waiting window yawning open. A tired smile was on her lips as the mother of Carly Beth set down the tray and looked outside into the darkness of the autumn evening. She took a deep appreciative breath of the thin Midwestern air, then turned back toward the interior of the house and disappeared once again.

A satisfied hiss escaped from the Mask as he took in the evidence of the mother's presence, and he quickly floated across the street and took refuge in the shrubs directly underneath the hot tray. The disgusting scent of sugar and dough wafted across the way, and the Mask did all he could to block out the nauseous smell of human baking that so perverts this most wicked time of year.

The Mask peeked over the sill once he had steeled himself against the warm cookies to make sure the mother was gone; to his relief, she was not present. So he rose and passed through the yawning mouth of the window. The interior, as he looked around, was exactly as he remembered it: warm, bright, and cozy. He saw through the partition the sitting room, where, on the mantle, that disgusting token of his previous defeat was sitting. It stared straight ahead, watchful and alert in its static vigil over a host who has long since gone away. But her scent was still so enticingly powerful in this place, and that drove the Mask out of the kitchen before the sickening vermin decided to return and ruin all his plans.

He followed the trail into her old bedroom, where the door was slightly ajar. Just down the hall, the Mask could hear the annoying little brother—Noah, whom he had the pleasure of possessing for a brief moment before Carly Beth took action and removed him before he could take full control—blasting and singing along to some heavy metal band the Mask didn't care to wonder about. That little vermin would have to be disposed of, too, once he had claimed what he came here for. So the Mask passed undetected into Carly Beth's bedroom and, chuckling evilly, started to concoct his sadistic plan…


End file.
